First and second reports from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment : together with the minutes of evidence and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First and second reports from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment : together with the minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    F. R. S. 29 February 1848. 16 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE Harry could cure my leg or my arm, or do me any good, when none of the regular surgeons could do so. 87. Without entering into the reasoning by which you have supported your last answer, or into the illustration with which you have adorned it, it is desired that you should state to this Committee, whether, within your knowledge, there are not other instances in which the State, for the public good, and for the benefit of third parties, has required that a solicitor, for instance, should be registered and should pay a tax, and that no person should be permitted to practise as a solicitor without having passed his examination, and without being registered or licensed accordingly, paying a stamp duty ; is there any reason why the Legislature should not take as much care of the health of their fellow subjects as of their law business?—I am very desirous of having a good registry, and one made upon sound principles ; I believe such a register as the College of Surgeons has now is of great use, and I offered when President to include all gentlemen who are practitioners in pharmacy, and to put their qualifications beside their names; but some of the parties made a strenuous objection to it. 88. Has the Royal College of Surgeons ever tried the effect of penal pro- secutions in order to repress unlicensed practice ?—They have no power; they could not do it; nor would I do it if I could. 89. Iri fact, any person, with or without a qualification, may in England practise as a surgeon without let or hindrance from the Royal College of Surgeons or any other authority ? -Yes. 90. May he publicly style himself a surgeon ?—At present he may. 91. Without incurring any liability to be prosecuted by the Royal College of Surgeons?—I very much regret that he should be able to do so. 92. Chairman.'] You said just now you did not see any objection to allowing any private party to employ for himself in his own cure anybody he pleased, whether he had passed an examination or not; do you make any difference between the case where a party employs such a person for himself, and the case where he is employed by him to act upon third parties; take for instance, the appointment of such a person to a public situation such as surgeon to a hos- pital, or surgeon to a ship ; would you leave it to the parties who had to choose the person who is to fill such a situation, to select him without having his qualifications for such a situation previously tried, by examination, before some body competent to determine upon his skill ?—That is not what I intend ; I am desirous that every medical man should have the necessary qualifications; and I am clearly of opinion that no person should hold any public office whatever unless he has the proper qualification necessary for that office; nor would I allow any person to assume a title which he has not a right to possess, nor to be employed to attend a third party, or give any medical certificate. 93. You would not allow any such person to be employed in a public situation without a qualification?—No; they should hold no public situation, and I would make another very marked distinction between them ; I would allow the regular practitioner the right of recovering in a court of law what was due to him for his services, but not the irregular men ; and in that way I would distinguish him from those who had not a regular qualification to practise ; I would mark such persons, in fact, as strongly as I could. When just now I stated that the present examination was not more severe than the examinations used to be, I ought to add to that statement, that though the examination is practically the same, the qualification for that examination has in some degree been altered. Since the year 1835, the Court of Examiners have been increasing the qualification required from their candidates ; they did it in the year 1838 and in 1841 ; and my own opinion is, that we have placed it rather higher than the public interests in fact demand, or that the public can exactly meet. It is possible it might be advantageous if it were, to a certain extent, diminished, and a good preliminary education enforced. One great defect in the charter is, that while it places the preliminary education for the fellowship very high, it says nothing about the preliminary education of the junior branch, which it ought to have done. 94. When you speak of “ qualification,” do you mean the previous educa- tion of the candidates?—It presses the medical education a little further than I think it should do ; one point which I should say had better be altered is, insisting upon having three winters of study ; that was done with a view of increasing
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